Tennis Racquets

When purchasing a tennis
racquet the first thing to know is that the ratio of heavy
and head-light is the best choice. These are optimal for performance
as well as for avoiding injury. A racquet that is light and head-heavy
is generally reserved as a poor choice.

Some players may argue that because
you can swing the light racquet faster, it
will hit harder than a heavy racquet. If you have the time and energy
to execute long violent strokes, you can swing the light racquet faster
and get greater head velocity on impact. However, this causes three
problems which include: a violent stroke is harder to control; when
you are stretching for a shot, you don't have time to execute a long
stroke, so velocity will be small and because racquet weight is small
also, your shot will be weak; and lastly, the light, fast racquet will
slow down a lot on impact, stressing the arm.

When looking at tennis equipment,
a player needs a racquet that will gives increased ball
speed for the least effort (efficiency), and which will not stress your
elbow or shoulder (elbow and shoulder safety). What you don't want is
to put in a lot of effort on an uncontrolled shot that wrecks your arm.

The light, head-heavy racquet has a
high swing weight, which is good for pace and spin. But in combination
with light weight, there are these drawbacks which include: (a) a light
and head-heavy racquet is bad for the elbow and shoulder (b) it feels
heavy and sluggish to position for volleys and returns; (c) the power
comes from your effort, not the racquet, and you have to work a lot
harder to get a certain ball speed than with a heavy and head-light
racquet.

A surprising benefit of research in
outer space is a design concept for a better performing tennis racquet.
The concept is to taper the strings in such a way that shifts the center
of percussion (also called the "sweet spot") toward the toe
(the outer end of the racquet, farthest from the player's hand). The
major difficulty in designing a high-performance tennis racquet arises
from the difference between the position of the maximum speed (the toe)
and the position of optimum vibration (the sweet spot).

In a typical older design, the sweet
spot is at the geometric center of the strung area of the racquet. The
impact of the ball on the sweet spot causes minimal strain to the player's
hand. However, the average player tends to strike the ball farther out
toward the toe, and to obtain maximum power on serves, it is necessary
to strike the ball as close as possible to the toe. So, performance
can be improved by moving the sweet spot outward.

In terms of the width of mesh, a wider
string area offers a greater
hitting area. Players' all have their own style so a player with a hard
and precise return will often use a smaller mesh. Regarding the length
of handle, a longer handle offers better momentum in a hit. If a player
is strong in first place than they will often use a shorter handle.